I don’t know about you but I find winter a season to be endured rather than enjoyed and over the years I have amassed some survival strategies for getting me through to the other side. Take a look below to find out more…

Keeping in Fine Winter Fettle

The four things that reliably keep us physically healthy are eating well, drinking well, moving well and resting well. This is no different in winter to any other time of year, however all of these areas seem to suffer somewhat in the darker, damper days. Read more

This year I decided that I needed to get my act together so I set out on January 1st with a series of self care objectives in mind.

I started in January with a sponsored, month long dryathlon to raise money for the Woodlands Trust. This seemed to extend right into the back end of February I got so carried away with it. I’ve shaped up my diet, I’m continually increasing my exercise levels and introducing new forms of exercise into my repertoire, I’ve reinstated my fortnightly visits to the massage therapist and am receiving reflexology once a month too, I have cut back on social media time, and I am prioritising down time. For the first time in what feels like at least a couple of years I feel fantastic, I have energy, I feel more productive when I am working, and I feel rested when I’ve had time off.

As I sat by the stream in the picture above the other day enjoying the sunshine filtering down through the trees and listening to the birds singing, I began to wonder what had taken me so long to get round to making these shifts in my lifestyle and I came back to one of my biggest bug bears as a holistic therapist Read more

http://appletreeholistics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Untitled-1.png00Rachel Surteeshttp://appletreeholistics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Untitled-1.pngRachel Surtees2016-05-10 15:06:582016-05-10 15:44:52It's time to make self care a priority!

It’s Friday afternoon, 4:30pm. You’re sat at your desk, just another hour to go and then you’re out of here for the weekend. You can feel yourself willing away the seconds until that moment when you can just put everything down for a few sweet days.

You have spent the last five days sat at your desk, wedged into a tiny space in a chair that does very little to support good posture, typing away at a keyboard for hours on end, with your arms permanently in the forward reaching position. Just to throw in a little occasional variation you might give a little wiggle to the mouse. You have continuously contorted yourself into some of the strangest positions you can imagine (from an onlookers point of view) in order to see the screen which is sat in front of you more clearly, and to have much needed documents spread around you in order to do your work.

Your boss told you this morning that there was a huge piece of work he needed you to do that just had to be completed by the end of the day, not to mention the other three projects which you already have underway. Read more

http://appletreeholistics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Untitled-1.png00Rachel Surteeshttp://appletreeholistics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Untitled-1.pngRachel Surtees2015-08-27 10:18:062015-08-27 10:22:37Why thousands of people in the UK are turning to holistic therapies

If truth be told, I have been using myofascial release techniques alongside my existing massage skills for years, as many of you who have undergone treatment with me will know. I feel I should at this point offer my humble gratitude to those of you who came forward to be practiced on whilst I was training.

So why now?

Why have I decided to make a big song and a dance about it all of a sudden?

Some of you will already know, and many of you may not, however I completed my training at the back end of 2012 to become an integrative Myofascial Release practitioner. I have continued to use the techniques as part of my existing practice, but more and more I am seeing people walking through my treatment room doors who would benefit from a solely fascial approach to their treatment.

Myofascial release is fast gaining recognition due to recent scientific research and has even been heralded by some as the ‘missing link’ in traditional body work, so I feel I should do my duty in educating those of you who have no idea what this super-efficient form of body work is all about. Read more